


Sick Days, Or Five Times Josh Looked After Donna

by spinninginfinity



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-09
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-03-11 09:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3323186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinninginfinity/pseuds/spinninginfinity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says on the tin.</p><p>
  <i>‘Hang on, you called me to help you with something and then when you heard I was sick you spent the morning making me soup?’</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sick Days, Or Five Times Josh Looked After Donna

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheseArePeople](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheseArePeople/gifts).



‘Hey, Donna!’ Josh calls through the hotel room door. He drums his hands against it a few times. ‘Donna, everyone’s downstairs for dinner; you coming?’

She groans as he begins the drumming again.

‘All right, all right!’ she snaps, padding over to the door and flinging it open. ‘Anyone ever tell you you can be kind of obnoxious?’ she asks.

He jerks a thumb over his shoulder. ‘I saved you a space and… you… are not dressed,’ he notes, taking in the untied bathrobe that she’s keeping closed with her arms folded tight across her body.

‘No.’

‘Well, fling on some sweatpants and come join us.’

She sighs. ‘Josh, I can’t. I’m sick.’

‘You’re sick?’ He peers at her, concerned. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Oh, you know,’ she says, waving her hand.

He gives a sage nod. ‘Yeah, campaign trail’ll do that to you. I think everyone’s got a bit of something, actually; Toby was saying he’s got a sore throat, though I don’t think all the yelling is helping there—’

‘Josh—’

‘Not that it’s not totally warranted most of the time; I mean, could you teach some of the other interns your secret? Because I swear most of them are incompetent—’

‘Josh,’ she interrupts, ‘I’m on my period.’

He blinks at her. ‘Your—’

‘Period, yes.’

‘Oh.’ He frowns. ‘Cramps? Have you been drinking lots of water?’

‘Josh!’ She ties the robe, yanking the belt tight, and then smacks him in the shoulder. ‘You were meant to recoil in horror!’

‘From the period thing?’

‘Yes! I was relying on you being squeamish!’

‘Sorry. I’m fine as long as I can’t see any blood.’ 

‘Drinking lots of water doesn’t work, anyway,’ she tells him sulkily.

‘Does salmon work?’ he asks. ‘There’s salmon on the menu. Or chicken marsala? I could bring you some.’

‘Josh,’ she says through gritted teeth, ‘I know you’re trying to be nice, and I know you’re my boss, and I know you gave me a really great opportunity for which I’m forever grateful, so I hope you’ll understand that this is not me but my self-destructing uterus talking: go away and let me sleep.’ 

He holds his hands up. ‘I’m going. They’re serving until 10 if you change your mind.’

She closes the door behind him and collapses face first onto her bed, and when she wakes up two hours later and shuffles out to go and check in with Josh, she finds a large bar of chocolate and a packet of aspirin outside her door.

 _Go back to bed!_ his note reads. _We’ll talk in the morning. The salmon was good, though. You missed out._

She smiles and gathers up the chocolate and painkillers, and feels a little better.

***

‘Seriously?’ Donna says, standing back to let Josh into her apartment. ‘Are you checking up on me? You think I’m faking being ill?’ She notes the backpack he’s carrying. ‘Oh my god, have you brought me _work_? It’s Saturday; I wasn’t even meant to come in today!’

‘No!’ Josh exclaims, looking so offended that Donna feels a little guilty. ‘Of course I don’t think you’re faking; I decided against going in myself! I came to bring you soup!’

She softens. ‘That’s nice of you. What kind of soup?’

‘Matzah ball, obviously,’ he says. He puts the backpack down on her kitchen counter, pulling a carrier bag from inside it. ‘I followed my mom’s instructions to the letter.’

‘It certainly smells nice,’ she says, opening the bag.

‘And then I figured I’d probably gone wrong somewhere along the way and stopped at that delicatessen on Connecticut instead.’

‘Ah.’ She lifts the lid off the pot of soup, peering at the fluffy matzah balls. ‘You should’ve kept up the pretense. It looks lovely.’

‘I think you’d have guessed I hadn’t made it when it didn’t, you know, make you sicker.’

‘It’s very sweet of you,’ she tells him, closing the soup over. ‘Hang on, you called me to help you with something and then when you heard I was sick you spent the morning making me soup?’

He shrugs. ‘It’s no big deal; it mostly just sits there and simmers. I’ll catch up this afternoon.’

‘Okay.’ Donna sits on one of the high stools at the breakfast bar, swiveling gently from side to side. ‘Anything much happening today?’

‘Donna!’

‘What?’

‘You accuse me of coming to give you work and then—’

‘I was only asking!’

‘No,’ he says, pointing a finger at her. ‘You rest, you drink your soup—wait, do you drink soup or eat soup?’

‘I think—’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ he continues, waving it off, ‘you consume your soup and you get better.’

She smiles. ‘Whatever you say, Nurse Lyman.’

***

‘I brought you stuff,’ Josh announces as he opens Donna’s door. She’s beginning to regret giving him a key, but she has to admit the amount of time and effort it was taking her to hobble to let him in had been getting ridiculous.

‘I got you food,’ he continues, heading into the kitchen. ‘I got you some of those microwave meals you like, so it’s easier, or if you’re up to more of a challenge I got you regular food, too. I used the shopping list you gave me last time.’

‘Thanks,’ she calls. ‘How much do I owe you?’

‘Don’t worry about it. You want tea, coffee?’

‘Sure, coffee’s great.’ She looks up at the ceiling for a moment from where she’s lying on the sofa. ‘Josh, it’s Tuesday afternoon.’

‘Yeah.’ He sticks his head out the door to look at her. ‘So?’

‘So, shouldn’t you be at work?’

‘It’s fine.’

‘Josh—’

‘Donna, when I got shot you were over at my apartment every day looking after me; I think it’s okay for me to return the favor, don’t you?’

‘Sure,’ she says. She pauses. ‘Only your job’s kind of more important than mine.’

She hears him fiddling with the coffee maker and muttering to himself.

‘You gotta lift the thing,’ she calls, then sighs and sits up, reaching for her crutches and making her way into the kitchen.

‘I’m figuring it out,’ he tells her.

She smiles and reaches past him to sort the machine out. ‘You have never in the whole time we’ve known each other been able to work this coffee maker. I don’t think today’s gonna be the day you finally learn, do you?’

‘If you’d let me get you a new one—’

‘Hey, I can work it no problem.’ She leans back on the counter, chewing absently at her lip as the coffee maker thrums to life.

‘How are you feeling?’ Josh asks, at length.

‘Okay,’ she says. ‘A little stiff.’

‘You did your exercises?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Okay.’

Their coffee cups are almost full when Josh speaks again. ‘I could ask HR to do more, you know. To make it more comfortable for you at work.’

‘Josh, you know this easing back in slowly thing is actual medical advice from actual doctors, right?’

‘I know that.’ He hands her her coffee and heaps sugar into his own. ‘I just meant for when you’re there.’

‘Oh.’ She nods, curling her hands around her mug. ‘Maybe, then. I could ask.’

‘I don’t like the temp they sent over the last few times,’ he says.

‘Do they like you?’

‘It’s possible there’s a mutual lack of love there.’

She grins and takes a sip of her coffee. ‘I’m sure if you’re your usual, charming self…’

‘Well, she’s making it very difficult,’ Josh says.

‘I’ll try to make a speedy recovery,’ she assures him.

‘Good,’ he says. ‘I miss you.’

He looks vulnerable for a second and she swallows.

‘I miss you too,’ she says.

***

She’s standing in the lobby of a Sheraton in Iowa and feeling like she might collapse when she hears a familiar voice say, ‘Hey.’

‘Hey,’ she croaks, turning to face him. ‘I thought you guys weren’t coming here until next week.’

Josh’s face falls. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘You are not fine! Is Will making you work?’

She glares at him. ‘No, I’m choosing to work. Don’t bring your weird dick-measuring contest with Will into this.’

He opens his mouth to protest and then seems to think the better of it. ‘Okay, I’m sorry. I just—you look pretty rough.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Have you taken anything?’

‘It’s just a cold, Josh.’

‘I don’t think it is.’

She shakes her head. ‘It’s really fine.’

‘Okay,’ he says, after a moment. ‘I’m gonna go check in.’

She watches him walk away for a moment and then turns back to look at her phone.

‘Sorry, no,’ Josh says, and she turns to see him hurrying back toward her, swinging his backpack off his shoulder and unzipping one of the front pockets, rifling about inside. ‘Hang on. Here we go.’ He hands her half a pack of painkillers. ‘Just take something, okay? And get an early night.’

‘You know,’ she says, ‘I don’t need you to look after me.’

He raises his eyebrows. ‘You’re telling me you wouldn’t hand me a couple Tylenol if you saw me standing here looking… like you currently do?’

‘Boy, you’re just piling on the compliments tonight, aren’t you?’ She feels for a moment as though she wants to say something else, but instead she just slips the pills into her bag. ‘Thank you.’

***

‘You don’t have to get up every time, you know,’ Donna says, taking a shaky sip from the glass of water Josh has handed her.

‘I know,’ he says, taking the glass and setting it on the bedside table. He rubs his hand in slow circles on her back. ‘I’m choosing to, though. I feel, you know, partially responsible, and I’m dealing with none of the negatives, so.’

‘That’s true,’ she says. ‘I guess you can get up every time.’ She takes a deep, steadying breath. ‘I thought it was called “morning sickness”?’

‘Yeah, I feel we may have been lied to there.’

‘Mm.’ She lies back against the V-shaped nursing pillow Josh wasted no time getting for her, and closes her eyes. ‘I’m so glad I’ve got you to take care of me.’

‘I’ll always take care of you,’ he tells her, leaning over to kiss her forehead, and strokes her hair soothingly until she drifts off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, I really welcome and appreciate any feedback!


End file.
